But why she herself should have been sent upon this road, of all roads of suffering, was more than Anne could see.
She, whose nature revolted against the despotically human, had schooled herself into submission to the divine.

Her sense of being supremely guided and protected had, before now, enabled her to act with decision in turbulent and uncertain situations of another sort.

Where other people writhed or vacillated, Anne had held on her course, uplifted, unimpassioned, and resigned.

Now she was driven hither and thither, she sank to the very dust and turned in it, she saw no way before her, neither her own way nor God's way.
Widowhood would not have left her so abject and so helpless.

If her husband's body had lain dead before her there, she could have stood beside it, and declared herself consoled by the immortal presence of his spirit.